April 17, 2008

Looking Back: Seeing the President and the Pope

It's a once in a lifetime experience to see the pope, or in about 10 years to see a post from the past. It was a two-day event. First we met at the Willard hotel to talk about and organized. My group involved scouts from all over the National Capital Area Council (NCAC) ranging from Annapolis to Woodbridge.

The adventure started by leaving school early from Spanish class. Before getting into downtown D.C., my Dad and I ate lunch at the Carlye Cafe in the Arlington neighborhood of Shirlington. After, I met Patrick and Sam, two fellow Scouts in my troop at the Willard hotel. Since I already ate lunch, I sat and watched them enjoy their meal. Soon, others from all over the D.C. area arrived. We then went to the White House rose garden where we organized into the following groups: Girl Scouts, Knights of Columbus and some students from a bunch of Catholic schools. As far as I'm aware those schools included: Seton, Bishop Ireton, O'Connell and Gonzaga Prep.

As you could imagine, we stood around for awhile before we finally met our parents back at the Willard. Since we had to get back to the Willard by 6 a.m. the next morning, we stayed at a the Washington Hilton, a few blocks away. That evening, we ate dinner at Clyde's and then went to go see "Hairspray" on stage.

In a few short hours, I got the painful experience of waking up at 4:55 a.m., I then took a 25 minute shower cause I couldn't figure out the knob. From there, the three of us got in our stylish Boy Scout uniforms and ventured over to the Willard. Soon, we walked to the White House and then to the Eisenhower Building, only to sit around there for two hours. We played some stupid ring game, but they gave us free bottles of White House brand water, how nice.

FINALLY, we went back out to reorganize, and then we had the whole ceremony and saw the pope. Amazing is the most concise way to put it. Oh, this girl from Seton passed out, then it ended. We went back, got lost, but found our way. We then went to the Newseum, which was neat. The renovated Newseum. And then drove through gorgeous Anacostia before coming home, and now telling you this story.